Entertainment

Caitriona Balfe and Sam Heughan preview the love and loss of 'Outlander' Season 3

It's been more than a year since Outlander last graced our screens, but it's clear that the time-traveling drama intends to make up for lost time in its action-packed third season, which will explore the two decades that our star-crossed couple, Claire (Caitriona Balfe) and Jamie (Sam Heughan), spent apart following the Battle of Culloden, as well as their journey back together.

For Claire, that means attempting to rebuild her life with first husband Frank (Tobias Menzies) so that her daughter, Brianna (Sophie Skelton), has some semblance of a normal upbringing, even if she'll grow up without knowing her real father.

"We talked a lot about, 'What do you think their day to day life is like?' and we had a lot of discussions about how we think this marriage is ... 'How do a person's experiences wear on you?' That's what I was interested in examining," Balfe says, explaining how Claire deals with the loss of Jamie and her new dynamic with Frank. "I think when you shut off a side of yourself, then how does that change how you carry yourself or how you interact with other people? I think that when you see Claire first, she's definitely slightly more repressed and a little bit more brittle than we've seen her before. I always think Claire's true nature is when her hair's blowing and she's on a horse and she's galloping across a field with Jamie by her side. And this is a very different woman that we see in the beginning."

Balfe points out that although the audience knows Jamie didn't die in the Battle of Culloden, Claire spends the next 20 years believing that he did, which allows her some semblance of closure that Jamie doesn't have.

"Living with the grief and living with the memory of somebody is very different from living with the knowledge that somebody is somewhere else and you can't be with them. That's sort of where I had to look at it from," Balfe tells Mashable.

"It's very easy, I think, as the audience, to just look at it in terms of, 'Oh, but they're separated and they're not together, and that must be the worst thing ever.' I think as a character, when someone is dead, that's a very different experience than knowing that you are forcibly separated from somebody," she adds. "She lives with this loss, for sure, but I think that she's managed to create a life for herself where she can function at a pretty high level. But she's felt the biggest love of her life, and she's gone through this relationship that surpassed anything that she ever expected to feel."

Wedded bliss?

Image: starz

When we last saw Jamie, he had just said goodbye to Claire at Craigh na Dun and was preparing for the Battle of Culloden — the devastating massacre that he and Claire spent all of Season 2 trying to avert, unsuccessfully.

After two seasons of build-up, Heughan admits that the cast and crew had been looking forward to finally bringing the legendary clash to life.

"The Battle of Culloden was something that not only the crew and the highlanders and everyone was anticipating, but it’s a real important part of our history," he points out. "I think it was a great start to the season. And certainly, Jamie does suffer it pretty horrendously. But Brendan [Maher], our director, was great and really worked through the journey of Jamie there and his loss and coming to terms with having lost Claire and actually not expecting to survive the battle."

While Claire is living a life of domesticity in the early part of Season 3, Jamie is trying to figure out how to live without her, when he really has no interest in doing so. As always, the two complement each other beautifully, even when they're apart — Claire's tribulations take place on an intimate, interpersonal scale, while Jamie's story takes him on a literal journey of self-discovery. Claire's scenes simmer with emotion, while Jamie is trying desperately to repress his own, for fear of feeling too much.

"I think what makes our show different to all the others is that it’s constantly moving. It’s constantly changing. It’s not all set in one studio. And not only every season, but every episode is surprising and we go somewhere else," Heughan reveals. "This season in particular feels very strong. Each episode has its own individual theme or feeling to it. And the characters, they grow up, they change. Jamie’s a lot of fun to play; he is the other side of Claire, and they’re a great team together. I’m enjoying growing up with him."

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